VOLUME 8 NO. 2 JULY 2017 • pages 13-22 MALAYSIAN JOURNAL OF VETERINARY RESEARCH MOLECULAR PREVALENCE AND SPECIES CO-INFECTION OF BOVINE HAEMOPARASITES IN PENINSULAR MALAYSIA OLA-FADUNSIN S.D.1, MAIZATUL A.M.1, IBRAHIM A.R.1, AMLIZAWATHY A.1, CHANDRAWATHANI P.2, JESSE F.F.A1, SANI R.A.1 AND SHARMA R.S.K.1* 1 Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. 2 Department of Veterinary Services, Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-Based IndustryWisma Tani, Block Podium, Lot 4G1, Precint 4, Federal Government Administration Centre, 62630 Putrajaya, Malaysia. * Corresponding author:
[email protected] ABSTRACT. Bovine haemoparasites are first attempt in the country to document cosmopolitan in distribution and are the molecular prevalence and species co- known to cause substantial losses to the infection of bovine haemoparasites over a cattle industry. In spite of their economic wide spatial distribution. The data obtained importance, there remains a dearth of will facilitate treatment, control and information on their molecular epidemiology prevention measures to improve the local in many parts of the world including cattle industry. Malaysia. To ascertain the molecular Keywords: bovine haemoparasites, prevalence and species co-infection of Peninsular Malaysia, Anaplasma marginale, bovine haemoparasites in the country, Theileria orientalis, Candidatus Mycoplasma blood samples were collected from 1,045 haemobos, Babesia bovis, Babesia bigemina, heads of beef and dairy cattle on 43 farms Trypanosoma evansi from six geographical zones throughout Peninsular Malaysia. Samples subjected INTRODUCTION to PCR amplification of parasite species- specific genetic fragments revealed that The domestication and farming of livestock Anaplasma marginale was the most prevalent present many challenges including haemoparasite (72.6%), followed by Theileria prevention and control of diseases that orientalis (49.8%), Candidatus Mycoplasma could affect productivity.